Nintendo finally issues apology for lack of TVii in Europe

When the Wii U launched in November 2012, one of the big selling points Nintendo liked to emphasize was the addition of TVii, a feature that let you watch live TV using your Wii U GamePad remote to find what’s on. The system allowed control of TV and cable boxes alike in order to find something to watch and if what you wanted to watch wasn’t on, it would show you options for streaming such as Hulu and Amazon Videos.

While the service never really took off here in America, at least we can say we have it. Nintendo planned to offer the service to Europeans sometime within 2013, but the release date kept moving farther and farther back until here we are in 2014, with no TVii support for Europeans. Today, Nintendo finally issued a small apology. On the Nintendo UK homepage, you can find this tiny tidbit:

We would like to apologise that we were unable to bring the Nintendo TVii service to Europe in 2013 as originally planned.
Please continue to keep an eye out for further announcements regarding this service in the near future.

So, Nintendo is sorry that Europeans don’t have TVii service, but there is no official word on when this service will roll out to Europeans. It continually looks as though Nintendo is attempting to sweep TVii under the rug, especially with Microsoft’s heavy focus on multimedia and entertainment with the Xbox One.

Around the web

Less “Please understand” and more action.
I know you have made some really bad decisions and came across some bad hiccups with the Wii U.

But it’s time to see you make some changes to make the best of what you have!

BIG Franky

does anyone actually use it? I don’t even know what it is…. or care….. i’m fine with using my remote, LOL…. (same goes for the XB1…. who wants to bark out orders like that? no one I know….) the remote worked fine two months ago (and is easier/faster) and the remote works fine now.

Matt Elgie

I have it set up and have used it. It shows a picture of what shows are playing with your provider at the current time, in a half hour, and in a hour. It is convenient actually.

BIG Franky

but that function is already provided in the ‘guide’ portion of digital cable or TiVo service….

Matt Elgie

I have regular cable. All I have is a lame channel 47 tv guide. So the tvii is actually nice so I dont have to watch that slow scrolling guide.

Zuxs13

It’s basically an interactive TV guide, makes it very simple to browse shows and see when it will be on and what service you can watch it on (IE cable, netflix, Hulu, Amazon) in stead of searching each individual service. Unfortunatley it is still too early of a program to be worth a daily use.

BIG Franky

cue the fanboys who claim to actually use the TVii service replying to talk about how awesome it is and how there is soooooo much you can do with it (especially with sporting events! LOL) in 3….2…..1…..

http://about.me/overlordror Ashley King

I got a lot of people messaging me on Twitter due to me saying the service hasn’t been updated on the recent podcast. Incremental updates that don’t provide new functionality are not updates, people. TVii is just as stagnant as it was when it launched.

Nintendo does not care about it as a feature.

Zuxs13

Well to be fair, everyone has been bitching there has been no games on the WiiU, so wouldn’t you rather Nintendo focus there right now then TVii?
Also wouldn’t i.TV also be responsible for providing the updates for TVii since they are the company behind it?

BIG Franky

YES! thank you…. debugging is NOT releasing an update. functionality is fragile at best. I don’t even think its that big of a deal either, no one bought a Wii U for this anyways… they bought it for all of the games that didn’t come out until a year later. I know that the Wii U had a very strong Fall and such, but they desperately need to give us a January Direct that gives us a taste of some up-and-coming titles and updates on already announced games…. they are lucky that the PS4 & XB1 haven’t been releasing any quality titles….

Sydney Ultrasyd

I don’t really care, my TV is only for video games, so I won’t use my console for TV 😀 I want games.

Stuart Thomas

Remove TVii and implement the VC service. GC N64 SNES and NES all under one roof,

Zuxs13

I actually use Netflix on my WiiU more than anything else.. Its a great netflix interface, only down side is it wont out put Dolby Digital.

Miguel Angel Barrueta Hernánde

The only contries in America that has this service are the Canada and the US, the rest of AMERICA doesn´t…

Christopher Acuna

There is only 1 America, and that is AMERICUH!!!!! 😛

ETMew2348

XD

Christopher Acuna

HOW DARE YOU THUMB DOWN AMERICUH!!!!! lol

Tecpedz94

No he pretty much said what he said correctly. The US is not the only part in American hence the words United States “OF” America

Just because the English speaking world and some USA neighbors, call US Citizens “Americans”, doesn’t mean the whole world does!!!

Kev

Louis I’m not sure if you’ve ever been to France, but I can tell you firsthand that for every person who says Étatsunien there is 1000 who say Américain/Américaine. This can be easily verified by doing a quick search on Google fr. Many french dictionaries don’t even recognize the term étatsunien. I’ve got a Larousse french dictionary sitting on my lap right now with no such definition, and even the wiki link you provided clearly states ‘These specific terms may be less common than the term American’ and ‘In French, états-unien, étas-unien or étasunien, from États-Unis d’Amérique, is a rarely used word.’

Louis

Thanks for the info. I haven’t been to France, so i used the article as reference. I can confirm though that in Spain they use a lot estadounidense, as i have been there and have friends there. Also I can confirm Brazil uses mostly estadunidense as I have Brazilian friends here. Also as i’m told, many Brazilians hate that US Citizens refer to themselves as “American”. I can’t confirm France nor Germany.

Yup. You found it online, but it’s not in my hard copy. (my dictionary is about 20 years old) Just for the record, I am not denying it is a legitimate word that is used to describe what we commonly call Americans. It’s just not a common term.

Louis

I’m also not denying that “American” is widely used. I was just making a point that the “Whole World” doesn’t refers to them as “Americans”. Look at Germans, there is a different word for them in every language, from different origins.

Kev

Fair enough.

Javier Smith

Textbook definitions and actual usage are completely different things. Of course, even in DR, “estadounidense” is the proper word to use; it’s just that nobody uses it.

And again, Norte Americano is a reeeally misleading and odd one to use as it completely ignores Mexico, Canada and the entire Caribbean so it isn’t much better.

Javier Smith

Probably my favorite from that list is how the Germans say it, actually. Still easy/quick but logical as well.

Michael DeVore

Not to nitpick but it should read.

The only countries in the Americas that have this service are Canada and the USA, the rest of the Americas don’t.

America can only reference the USA because it was the only country arrogant enough to put America in its name. Resulting in ether Untied Statesian, United States American, or American to label the inhabitants. There is also no America Continent. There are two with 3 regions which is why it’s Americas, North America, Central America, or South America. America, singular, can only reference the USA, or the America family arrogant enough to sign their name on top of an unnamed land mass.

rp17

That’s what I was thinking.
America = USA
Americas = North and South America

The “s” is the deciding factor

Lil J Moore

I have yet to use this feature.

Sdudyoy

I’ve never used it as I keep my Wii U in a different room as our cable box, and besides what it can do is mostly pointless, but really It’s not there yet? I didn’t know they where having issues in Europe, I really don’t think they can excuse themselves for not having this when we had this Day 1.

Zuxs13

Europe isn’t a singular country, there are many different broadcast laws, cable/TV providers etc there. It is far more difficult to work all those out there than it is in the US.

Dell Goodman

Tbh, this wasn’t a feature I could care for. Not having it, doesn’t make me want to have it.
I got a feature like this on my phone, samsungs “watch now” which shows me tv shows to my liking, I click it and it changes the tv to the right channel. (Or view what’s coming up)
If the Wii U can do that without having to turn on the console to its home screen, it’ll be something ld see myself using. But tbh, is rather Nintendo work on other things, such as importing n64, cube games, and handheld games to its store. Instead of 1-2 games every 2 weeks.

Michele Abbinante

I use consoles to play games, not to watch youtube, or surfing the internet, so I don’t mind,I have pc for this kind of things; I want games!!

Sdudyoy

I can completely agree, but there are times I use Youtube and netflix from my Wii U It’s not often.

Kev

I love watching youtube and surfing the internet on Wii U. The internet browser has always been awesome, but ever since they updated Youtube to allow phones to connect to the console, that has been my go to approach for watching Youtube videos in HD. The advantage of Wii U is the double screen, it loads faster than a typical PC and you can turn on the console without getting up. Edit: oh and Miiverse.

Kyros

Old news.
This statement was posted on Nintendos website over a week ago. At least on the german site, but i guess the european sites all post more or less the same stuff just in different translations.

Green

I have had my Wii U for almost a year now, and I still have no clue what this TVii thing even is ~_~. Why not just use your regular remote?

Random12multi

Isn’t there the blue T.V. button on the gamrpad…. and I don’t have cable so

Wighead

I tried to use TVii a couple of times but it doesn’t seem to work well with my provider and in the end it is faster to use a remote to screen what’s on tv. I also find the TVii options to be hard to use, it is not intuitive at all.

https://twitter.com/Onyzora Ony

I like how they say “Europe” just to talk about UK.

Fred

I think if they were wanting to sweep it under the rug the icon would disappear. Instead there’s a small apology and it says announcement coming soon. I’d say they either hit some difficult obstacles or just haven’t dedicated enough resources to it.

Fred

I thought TVii was cool, but then I decided that I didn’t watch TV enough and I canceled DirecTV and got Netflix/Hulu/Aereo instead. Now I don’t touch TVii

Zuxs13

TVii search all of netflix, Hulu, and amazon at one time for the shows you’d like to watch. Its actually not just for cable. (still needs a lot of work though)

Fred

Yea I know, but Netflix already does show recommendations for
me so unless there’s something else TVii does that I’m not aware of it just
seems easier to open the Netflix/Hulu Plus app to do my stuff.

Zuxs13

It does it for ALL your apps in one spot. Cable,netflix,hulu, and amazon (hopefully HBOGo some day one can hope) So if you like a specific show, you dont need to search each app individually to find which one actually carries it. (like Downton Abey is only on Amazon but i looked through both hulu and Netflix first until my TVii told me i could only get it on PBS or Amazon.)

Fred

Thanks maybe I’ll give it another go.

Kenshin0011

The thing is, it’s glitchy (scrolling the guide is slow and laggy), takes a while to boot up, and I honestly don’t watch that much TV anyway.

Levi Johansen

I want TVii mainly because then I can watch Netflix without leaving the game I am playing because TVii is in the “pause” menu.

Or they can make Netflix work in the browser…

Nintendo could also make it possible for developers to make apps than can run in this “pause” menu, would of course have much less resourses available, but still…

Antimo Pica

I hope Nintendo will bring soon rich contents such as Premium Play, NetFlix, SkyTV, … on TVii, this will encourage new customers to buy the WiiU

Relick

Netflix is already available, and I always use my WiiU to watch it.

Antimo Pica

Unfortunately Netflix is available only in US. In Europe (for example Italy) it is not yet available.
How is Netflix in your country ? Do you use it ?

Relick

It is available in the UK, it is good for old series I never got a chance to watch. Not really up to date though so don’t go on it too much.

starwars360

TV is rubbish in XB1 and Xbox 360 anyway. I never using TV on gaming systems. I got SKY HD Plus with HDTV so no need to using TV channels and programmes on gaming systems.

I owned Wii U, XB1, PS4, PS3 and 3DS. So I will never watch TV on those systems. Gaming systems is all about games.

Dáibhí wotshissurname

You seem to have a lot of money. Can I have some?

nin-10-doughfan

mii 2!

verymetal

Jolly Good Sir!

ETMew2348

i really don’t watch TV anymore i guess now all i watch is Simpsons,big bang theory, and retro cartoons (rugrats,sponge bob (classic),etc)

alex toschi

Sounds like you still watch TV then if you have a list of over 5 shows…

Shota

yep, i respect people like you. Take it for the games and have fun.

Zuxs13

Except you don’t actually watch TV on your WIiU with the TVii app. It is basically a TV guide and remote interface.

Graeme Lynch

That is very good and all but many people DONT have Sky so using their gaming console is a way to watch things otherwise inaccessible.
The TVii originally sounded like an awesome concept of consolidating everything like Netflix, Lovefilm, Now movies etc. Sadly I think part of Nintendo’s strategy is selling the WiiU as a gaming system only as it can’t compete with Microsoft or Sony.
TVii, yet another opportunity missed.

Magnus Eriksson

True, but it still doesnt change the fact that Nintendo have been lying for us. They shouldnt apologize for their incompetence only, they should apologize for their lying too. They tricked us all to buy this flawed and unfinished underpowered piece of hardware on the premise of a lot of promises. TVii being one of those, third party support another, Virtual Console support a third, a steady flow of first party games a fourth.

Mj78

Can’t say I really care. I want to play games. I have a DVD player to watch films believe it or not. X box one is not a games machine.

Shaise

Sometime? Are they kidding?

http://its-yuma-tsukumo.tumblr.com/ Yuma Tsukumo

I would’ve felt better if they said ‘Please understand’

Josh111111

Europe you’re not missing out on anything trust me. Nintendo TVii is very slow and clunky, the touchscreen isn’t very responsive (you can’t use the d-pad or buttons) and the software runs at like 5 FPS. Has anyone had success actually controlling your cable box because I haven’t. (I don’t think it was ever even an option.) At best I can control my TV and that’s just to control the volume and change channels. But changing channels is useless since I watch TV through the cable box.
I’m surprised it’s so bad since the internet browser is so fast and solid. Was it made by the same team? No offense but was it made by NoA? They’re not really a software developer.

Well considering it took Nintendo 12 months to release Scribblenauts in EU I am not surprised but I am saddened.

wiimenonowiiu

Tvii is not that big of deal anyway not missing much

Arthur Jarret

Couchtuner.eu has all the best shows available – offering multiple streaming sources and iShared an VK’s streams are always working flawlessly on my Wii U. Even in HD… 720p (which doesn’t look all that hot on my beamer, but still) and on the gamepad.

Who needs delayed releases and paid subscription services to use TVii?

Where are the promised movie releases for 3DS? Didn’t they announce a deal with disney back before it got released? Sure, I can recompile a 3D video to have a dual video stream instead of side by side, then cut it into 10 minute files to watch it using the 3DS camera – but either an official player for digital copies or lifting the length limitation would be much more workable

Tecpedz94

I even forgot what this does and i dont think i will even use it…

WiiUisgaming

What about Latin-America!!! I wish I had the Nintendo e-Shop. Nintendo should apologize for not bringing it to Latin-America, and then Nintendo must seek for TVii in Europe and,Latin-America

I don’t really mind -not- having TVii, but I would rather the next update removed the icon altogether than leave it there to use space. Having an useless icon usually results in me deleting it, but that’s not really an option here is it…

Shy Guy

I have Netflix and Hulu, the only reason I even keep a tv antennae around is in case of emergencies like the internet goes down and their is a bad storm or something. TVii would have been pretty nifty, back during the GameCube era.